The New Lifestyle

Very recently I decided to become Vegan.

Over the passed few years I have talked to people who are vegetarian, but to be honest, their words would go in one ear and out the other. I would question for a moment if I should be a vegetarian or not, but since I had not listened to the reasons for giving up meat, I never had true motivation to make the change. However, this passed school year has made me truly see the benefits to being a vegetarian. My roommate was a vegetarian who was filled with facts about the benefits to the environment that come from vegetarians. I supported her, but was still hesitant because I one, did not think I had the will power, and two, so many people gave her shit for what she believed in. I was too scared to get questioned non stop for what i would be doing, but she always held herself wonderfully, and really didn’t care because she was proud of what she was doing. I was honestly a little intimidated, I never showed how much I care about the environment and the animals because I never took that extra step in researching how we can prevent the deterioration of our environment. I did not want to be a fraud and just say I was doing something if I wasn’t going to do it wholeheartedly. But that was all just a big excuse. Later in the year, our floor mate became vegan for Lent. She did a lot of research on the healthy ways to make the huge transformation and to ensure she was getting all necessary nutrients. Having just these two incredible people around me doing research and making this change for the right reasons made me want to further research the benefits to being a vegetarian/vegan. 

This is what I found and what truly made me commit to my decision. 

1. Livestock grazing is the number one reason that plant species in the United States become threatened and go extinct. 

2. Commercial fishing methods such as bottom trawling and long-lining have virtually emptied millions of square miles of ocean and pushed many marine species to the brink of extinction

3. Raising animals for food is grossly inefficient, because while animals eat large quantities of grain, soybeans, oats, and corn, they only produce comparatively small amounts of meat, dairy products, or eggs in return. This is why more than 70 percent of the grain and cereals that we grow in this country are fed to farmed animals.

It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of meat, and even fish on fish farms must be fed up to 5 pounds of wild-caught fish to produce 1 pound of farmed fish flesh

4. It takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat, while growing 1 pound of wheat only requires 25 gallons. You save more water by not eating a pound of meat than you do by not showering for six months! A totally vegan diet requires only 300 gallons of water per day, while a typical meat-eating diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water per day.

There is more information out there, and I hope you’ll want to do some further research to see the benefits. I got this information from http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/meat-wastes-natural-resources.aspx

If you don’t want to be totally vegan or even vegetarian, consider doing it for just one meal a week. A research team at MIT predicts global economic collapse and precipitous population decline by the year 2030. As a society we have a responsibility to create the best living environment we can for ourselves. We need to preserve our resources and the MIT study showed that going from, for example, four meals with meat a week to three times a week you can help ensure that we have longer to use the natural resources that surround us. 

the MIT study can be found at http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/peak-civilization-mit-research-team-predicts-global-economic-collapse-and-precipitous-population-decline_04052012

I know I am just one person, but hopefully reading these points will help others decide to cut animal products out of just ONE meal a week, because that would make a huge difference. 

Have a Wonderful Night! 

Signed, 

Vegan Makes the World Go Round